Contact Tracing
What is contact tracing?
 A person with infectious TB
disease may spread TB infection to
others. The job of public health is not only to
help the person with infectious TB
disease get better, but also to help
others that the person may have infected. This
helps stop the spread of TB.
Public health workers talk to the person with
infectious TB
disease to find out who they spend time with
every day. Family members and close friends are usually
the first contacts to have a TB skin test to look for
TB
infection.
Why find contacts?
TB is not easily transmitted. Usually the person with
infectious TB
disease infects fewer than half of the
people living in the same house. If it
appears that the person has infected their closest
contacts, then people who spent less time with the
person are also offered a skin test to look for
TB
infection.
People have a higher risk of developing TB disease within the
first 2 years of getting TB infection. Contacts
who have been infected can be offered treatment of TB
infection to help their immune system fight
the infection and reduce their risk of developing
TB disease.
Public health workers spend a lot of time and effort
tracking down the contacts of people who have
infectious TB
disease. Thanks to their efforts, TB is rare
in Canada!
PDF Version 
[Tuberculosis FACT SHEET
- Index]
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